IPL 2021 SRH vs KKR: Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Kolkata Knight Riders. (IPL)IPL 2021, SRH vs KKR Team Playing 11 for Today Match: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face off against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai on Sunday. Both the teams will look to kick off their campaign on a winning note. KKR will be led by one of the best in business in the white-ball format, Eoin Morgan, who took charge of an ordinary-looking KKR under Dinesh Karthik midway into the last season held in the UAE. For SRH, it will be David Warner steering the ship. Follow our live coverage of the match here
Playing XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner(c), Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (w), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sheldon Jackson, Sandeep Warrier, Tim Seifert, Lockie Ferguson, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Vaibhav Arora
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (w), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Kedar Jadhav, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jason Holder, Virat Singh, Basil Thampi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Khaleel Ahmed, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Abhishek Sharma, Priyam Garg
Match 3, M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, 11 Apr, 2021
This is Harbhajan's first professional game since the IPL 2019 final on 12 May 2019, 699 days ago. Raina made a roaring return in yellow last night. Can his former CSK mate Harbhajan make the ball talk tonight? Follow the match here:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner(c), Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
The teams can be seen entering the fields and warming up now. Harbhajan Singh will make his debut for KKR today. He receives his cap. That's one of the spots done. What about the other 21? Toss and team news at 7 pm.
Follow our live coverage of the match from 7:30 pm IST here
It's almost a shot in the darkness to predict the playing XIs for the first game of the season. Most spots in the XIs are sealed, but there are many fighting for the few others remaining. Here's our try at prediciting the XIs.
SRH Predicted Playing XI: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (w), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan
KKR Predicted Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (w), Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Harbhajan Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna
Toss and playing xi news out in 30 minutes. Stay tuned.
Rashid Khan on David Warner's captaincy and the SRH bowling attack:
“With David Warner, as a bowler, he makes our job easier when he is scoring and contributing. The best thing about this team is everyone tries to make the job easy for the others. That’s what we do in this team,” Rashid said. “Similarly in the bowling department, If Nattu comes and picks up wickets, it makes my job easier. If Sandeep and Bhuvi pick up wickets, it makes my job easier. Because the batsman is already under pressure when I come into bowl.”
"Really excited to get out, we had a practice session and the boys are ready to go.... they trained hard and prepared well. Had two good practice games. We are ready to come out and light it up hopefully," Warner said in a video posted by SRH on Twitter. "We know our supporters through social media and they are extremely supportive, I wish they could come but I know they are supporting us 100 per cent and we appreciate their support. Hopefully, we can entertain you by winning some games," he added.
Are you ready for a Super Over or two (remember, there were 2 in a day in unprecedented scenes last year) in IPL 2021?
Wasim Jaffer's cryptic tweets have become quite something to look forward to when it comes to building up to matches. Today, he has made a reference to Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill as the two players to look out for.
KKR bought back Shakib for โน3.2 crore at the last auction, and now the left-arm spinner is expected to be an integral member of the team this season. "Given that we have a bit more travel this year and we go from venue to venue, it's important to have strength and depth in the squad. Shakib Al Hasan gives us a different dynamic in the team," Morgan told KKR's official website. "Given that we play at different venues where the conditions change quite a lot, you have a spin-bowling all-rounder who had success in international cricket and IPL at different stages," he added.
“He offers a huge amount of support to me on the pitch and off the field as well. Very grateful that he is in good form and in our team,” Morgan told kkr.in. “DK offers a lot with the bat and behind the stumps. He has been in fine form, and he is always one of those players who if you watch him train and particularly bat, he times the ball beautifully and hits the ball further than most of the guys,” Morgan said.
Three-time champions Chennai Super Kings witnessed a poor start to their ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign, losing by seven wickets to Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Cricket Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. | READ MORE HERE |
During IPL 2020 in the UAE, KKR beat SRH by seven wickets with two overs to spare. Manish Pandey's 38-ball 51 wasn't enough as Shubman Gill's unbeaten 70 guided KKR home in the chase of 143. In the reverse fixture, KKR and SRH played out a super over after both teams were tied at 163. Lockie Ferguson followed up his figures of 3/15 in the main game by restricting SRH to just two in the super over, dismissing both David Warner and Abdul Samad. KKR's Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik then sealed the win.
Kolkata Knight Riders have faced off against Sunrisers Hyderabad 19 times since 2013, holding a 12-7 win-loss advantage.
SRH Predicted Playing XI: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (w), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan
KKR Predicted Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (w), Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Harbhajan Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna
SRH captain David Warner has recorded 5254 runs in 142 IPL innings with the help of 510 boundaries and 195 sixes. He needs 5 more sixes to become the third overseas player after Chris Gayle (349) and AB de Villiers (237) to complete 200 sixes in IPL history.
KKR skipper Eoin Morgan has scored 6912 T20 runs in 295 innings. He requires another 88 runs to reach the landmark of 7000 runs in T20 format, and become the fourth player from England to reach the landmark in the shortest form of cricket.